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Ariana Grande has defended her fiancé, Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson, for making a joke about the Manchester bombing attack which sparked backlash.

The Daily Mirror, reported that during a show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, five months after the attack on May 22 2017, Davidson said that Grande must have realised just how famous she had become, because “Britney Spears didn’t have a terrorist attack at her concert.”

An onlooker at Davidson's sketch show, stated: “It drew gasps from the crowd and everyone squirmed in their seats, the event five months earlier was still pretty fresh, and there were plenty of British tourists in the crowd.”

Grande finally addressed criticism of her fiancé in a post on Twitter on Thursday. Responding to a fan who asked "why is she still with Pete," the 25-year-old admitted that the ordeal had been "very tough and conflicting on [her] heart," and said that she "didn’t find it funny."

However, Grande did leap to her fiancé's defence as she added: "It was months ago and his intention wasn’t/ is never [to be] malicious, but it was unfortunate."

this has been v tough & conflicting on my heart. he uses comedy to help ppl feel better ab how f-ed up things in this world are. we all deal w trauma differently. I of course didn’t find it funny. it was months ago & his intention wasn’t/ is never malicious but it was unfortunate

Charlotte Hodgson, whose 15-year-old daughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy died in the attack, told The Daily Mirror: “For anyone to joke about this situation is disgusting and I think he should publicly apologise for it."

The couple, whose relationship can only be described as a whirlwind, started dating in May and Davidson confirmed their engagement last month.

In an interview with Time magazine, Grande spoke about coming to terms with the attack: "You think with time it'll become easier to talk about. Or you'll make peace with it. But every day I wait for that peace to come and it's still very painful."

Davidson and Grande began dating in MayCredit:
Robert Kamau/GC Images

Last May 22 terrorist, Salman Abedi, detonated an explosive device which took the lives of 22 people and injured more than 500.